Our Leadership Team

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Chris Koester, owner and President of Priority One Safe-T, LLC, has over 27 years of service in the Public Fire Service field, is a certified Fire Instructor II and holds numerous firefighting and instructor certifications.

Chris is a Hazardous Materials Technician for the Homeland Security Regional Response Team for Southwest Missouri Region D and a member of the Southwest Missouri Incident Support Team, the Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute (HMTRI), Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (PETE) and Community College Consortium for Health & Safety Training (CCCHST).

Chris is also a training instructor for the Northeast Tech Rescue Training Center of Oklahoma and the University of Missouri Fire and Rescue Training Institute, and a consultant to the largest Urea Ammonium Nitrate (UAN) manufacturer in the U.S. and several other manufacturers that have oversight from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by virtue of the products manufactured.   Chris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Missouri Southern State University.

Dave Carter has over 25 years of experience in the Public Fire Service field and is a Hazardous Materials Technician for the Homeland Security Regional Response Team for Southwest Missouri Region D and a member of the Southwest Missouri Incident Support Team.

Dave is experienced and certified in numerous types of rescue and a certified Fire and Safety Instructor. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from Drury University.

David Horton has over 30 years of experience in Public Fire Service and is a certified Hazardous Materials Technician, Hazardous Materials Incident Commander, Emergency Medical Technician, Confined Space Rescue and Hazard Threat Assessment.

After 30 years of service, David retired at the rank of Battalion Chief for the Claremore, OK Fire Department in 2015. Serving as Incident Commander for the last 23 years of his career, David was in charge of day to day operations, large scale emergency incidents and training & deployment of the Level A Hazardous Materials team and the Region 2 State of Oklahoma response team.

David served on the International Fire Service Training (FSTA) committees for Essentials of Firefighting, Hazardous Material for the First Responder Operations Level, and Occupational Health and Safety for the Firefighter, and the State of Oklahoma HLS committee for the inception of a state region response system to Hazardous Materials and terrorist events in the State of Oklahoma. 

Christi Koester has 5 years of service in the Public Fire Service field, is a certified Fire Fighter I and II, First Responder, Hazardous Materials Awareness and Operations, Confined Space and Rope Rescue, and Fire Instructor I.

Christi holds multiple certifications in education. She has over 15 years experience in both public and private education. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Missouri State University.

Deborah Lovell has over 35 years of experience in business management and sales & marketing. She has worked with and for Fortune 500 companies and Federal, State & Local government.

Prior to joining Priority One Safe-T, Deborah was a senior conference producer of education programs and training workshops for the first responder community, both public and private sectors. 

Deborah worked directly with top leadership and subject matter experts from the U.S. Department of Defense, CIA, FBI, DNI, Homeland Security, FEMA and other federal government agencies as well as state law enforcement & local municipalities to develop sessions and workshops relative to domestic terrorism, active shooters, cybercrime, campus security, emergency response and disaster recovery. Conferences produced were attended by security and safety professionals worldwide.